Just A 'Mill Town'?

February 25, 1986

I MOVED to Orlando recently from a city in which governments and business often strive, as one, for the benefit of the metropolitan area. I have been chagrined to perceive an aberration existing in Central Florida that originates from one of the last places I would have expected.

It seems to me that the Disney people treat the area as if it were their ''mill town.''

Companies announce plans for a movie studio in southwest Orlando and a water park in Osceola County, and Orange County proposes a computerized train system. Disney then announces its own plans along those lines. Disney also is attempting to control the hotel market in its vicinity.

I am beginning to think that if Disney could move Orlando International Airport to Tomorrowland and have Interstate 4 terminate at Cinderella's castle, it would gleefully do so, thereby allowing no dollars to slip through its scroogish fingers.

The picture I am painting is, I hope, but a figment of my imagination; however, it if is true, the masses outside the realm's gates had best take care and realize that they and the area cannot compete -- individually -- with the California mouse.